A New Year's celebration turned violent on Friday, after a man in Svay Rieng province found himself in a tangle with an apparently gun-toting off-duty soldier. The argument had erupted at a pagoda in Svay Chrom district, leading the alleged soldier to wait for the victim to punch and slap him outside.

But when the victim’s friends tried to stop the attacker getting away, he reportedly threatened to shoot them. The men didn’t believe he had a weapon, only to quickly be proved wrong when the assailant shot one of them in the stomach and thigh. The attacker fled on his bike, while the injured man was taken to hospital by his friends. NOKORWAT